Terence McKenna: RIP

By
Dana Larsen
on April 11, 2000

Terence McKenna, reknowned psychedelics author, researcher and visionary, died on April 3, 2000.
Born in 1946, McKenna spent the last twenty-five years in the study of shamanism and the ethno-pharmacology of spiritual transformation.

With his brother Dennis, McKenna authored The Invisible Landscape and Psilocybin: The Magic Mushroom Growers’ Guide. He also wrote Food of the Gods, a study of the impact of psychotropic plants on human culture and evolution, as well as The Archaic Revival and Trialogues at the Edge of the West

His most recent book was True Hallucinations, a narrative of spiritual adventure in the jungles of the Colombian Amazon.

McKenna is survived by his longtime partner Christy Silness, and two children, a girl fourteen and a boy seventeen. He was living in Hawaii, where he divided his time between writing and lecturing.

McKenna had been diagnosed with brain cancer in May 1999, and despite a variety of standard and alternative treatments, succumbed to the disease.

Some have described McKenna as being to DMT was Timothy Leary was to LSD. McKenna wrote extensively about his experiences and theories about the powerful psychoactive substance.

McKenna promoted the idea that human consciousness and civilization developed because of evolutionary advances resulting from the use of psychedelic plants. His most recent interests included multimedia modeling of historical processes using Novelty Theory, a branch of fractal dynamics he invented.

McKenna was a hugely influential writer and his ideas and theories continue to influence and shape both underground and mainstream culture. Leary once described McKenna as “an eloquent and imaginative poet of the psychedelic experience.”

Terence McKenna’s continued insights and stories will be sorely missed.

McKenna’s publicist is Leslie Rossman and her phone/fax contact is 510-658-7520. She can be reached by e-mail, at [email protected]